


The Torchwood Effect

by SapphyWatchesYouSleep (Sapphy)



Series: Tumblr Fics [21]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexuality, Canon Bisexual Character, Gen, Past Infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-03 11:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10966392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/SapphyWatchesYouSleep
Summary: Rhys trails off, and Ianto sighs. Why is it always him that has to give the newbies the ‘everyone's a bit gay for aliens’ talk?





	The Torchwood Effect

**Author's Note:**

> A fic giveaway prize for CaptainClumsyFTW

“I'm sorry to drag you into this,” Rhys says for maybe the eighth time.

“Absolutely fine,” Ianto tells him, as he has every time.

“It's just… a hell of a thing to find out your wife slept with another woman, you know?”

Ianto nods, even though he actually has no idea. He's thus far managed to avoid being cheated on, but mostly by not allowing himself to think of what he and Jack have as anything like a relationship.

“And I know she said it was just… alien mind control, or whatever, but that's still… I mean, would that even work if she wasn't… you know….”

Rhys trails off, and Ianto sighs. Why is it always him that has to give the newbies the ‘everyone's a bit gay for aliens’ talk?

“It's the Torchwood effect,” he says.

“The what now?”

“The Torchwood effect. Everyone's a bit gay in Torchwood. Doesn't matter whether they were before, or whether they thought they were at least. Working for Torchwood… unlocks it, I guess.”

Rhys scowls. “You mean Jack does.”

Ianto can't help chuckling. “For me, sure. I've done thing for that man I never… I never thought I'd do for anyone.”

“Arse stuff.”

“I meant emotional stuff actually,” Ianto says, mostly just to make him blush, “but the other one as well. But no, I didn't mean Jack. I meant Torchwood.

“We have protocols for sex pollen, mind control, pheromones, shapeshifters… We lost an agent in London to a plasmavore who was preying on vampire fetishists. Whatever your thing is, you'll probably have to deal with it in Torchwood, and that.... opens people's minds to new possibilities.

“Plus for the last few years, Jack's been in charge of hiring, and straight people make him uncomfortable. So if you're in Torchwood, you're guaranteed to be at least a little bit queer.”

“But Gwen never…”

“Stops flirting with Tosh?” Ianto suggests. “She doesn't mean anything by it, but she's done it since day one. If Tosh was straighter, or less hung up on Owen, she might even have noticed, but she's much too gay to notice what Jack calls straight girl flirting.”

“You talk about this? With Jack, I mean?”

“One of the many things Jack is responsible for is stopping the team from imploding. That means keeping track of things like who's flirting with who. We are all that's keeping each aother alive out there. One fight that gets too serious, one romantic rivalry that runs too deep, is all it takes to make someone hesitate. And hesitation can mean death, or worse.”

Rhys is starting to look a little green, and Ianto knows it's time to change the subject before he causes any more marital difficulties for Gwen. 

“My point is, we've been watching Gwen from the start, and maybe she didn't know she was bi before she started, but it's been there from the start. It just needed the Torchwood effect to, you know, unlock it.”

“Which in this case was some kind of lesbian alien mind control?”

“Exactly.”

“Do you think we should talk about it?”

“Probably?” Ianto hazards. He and Jack have never talked about their sexual identities. They know they're attracted to one another. The rest seems unimportant, but he can see it would be different for other couples, and especially where both parties thought they were straight until recently.

He wonders idly what Rhys’s Torchwood Effect trigger would be. Maybe he doesn't have one, but then Ianto would have said the same of himself until he met Jack. And Owen would have until he discovered the freedom and anonymity that comes with covert work. And Gwen would have until she encountered alien pheromones. And Tosh probably thought she was gay until she met Owen.

Maybe Jack thought he was straight once, but Ianto doubts it. But on the other hand, Jack’s been in Torchwood nearly from the beginning, so maybe the Torchwood effect is just prolonged exposure to Captain Jack Harkness.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love


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